Harder Grades v1.0 for TS2NL v1.0p1
Made by: syberspunk

Since Pescado has an unofficial harderjobs hack in the works, that got me to thinking there should be an equivalent for grades as well. This hack makes it slightly harder to get an A+ for children and teens. It seems to easy (at least to me) to get an A+ in school for our sims. But A+ don't come so easily for some people in real life. Apparently the sims' schools aren't all that challenging. :rolleyes: In anycase, this hack now requires sims to have logic points and essentially puts a cap on grades based on those points. Here's how the "logic" of the mod should work:

Short version:

I'm interpreting logic points as a representation of the sim's intelligence. Grades are dependent on logic points as well as mood. To put it simply, the higher your logic points and the better your mood, the higher the cap is for students' grades and the better their chances for actually reaching that cap.

Long version (some of the hard code facts):

If a student has no logic points AND they have a grade that is < D, then their grade will improve if they've completed their homeworks.
If a student has no logic points AND they have a grade that is >=D, then their grade will have a a 1% chance of improving.
If a student has 1-3 logic points AND they have a grade that's < C, then their grade will improve if they've completed their homeworks.
If a student has 1-3 logic points AND they have a grade that's >=C, then their grade will have a a 5-15% chance of improving.
If a student has 4-6 logic points AND they have a grade that's < B, then their grade will improve if they've completed their homeworks.
If a student has 4-6 logic points AND they have a grade that's >=B, then their grade will have a a 20-30% chance of improving.
If a student has 7-9 logic points AND they have a grade that's < B, then their grade will improve if they've completed their homeworks.
If a student has 7-9 logic points AND they have a grade that's >=B, then their grade will have a a 35-45% chance of improving.
If a student has max logic points then their grade will always improve.

Mood also will have an affect, possibly doubling or halving the % chance of improving or dropping, just add more randomness.

Sims will still cheer if they get an A. After all, an A is a pretty good grade (I couldn't remember if this is "normal" or if sims only cheered for A+s).

Additionally, students have a 0-25% chance, corresponding to their logic skill (0-10), of getting an A+ if they have an A. Essentially, this puts a cap on getting an A+ unless the student has a lot of logic points.

Finally, mood will have an affect as well, doubling the % chance of increasing a grade with a better mood.

Incidentally... I'm not sure if this was a bug or just "poor coding" but the way it originally worked is that, if a sim was in a very bad mood they were guaranteed to lose a point. Sims in a very good mood were guaranteed to always gain a point. Even though there was code checking if a random # between 0-100, since the threshold was always 100 or more, the checks always returned true. What's the point of having randomness in there if it always returns true?

It appears that Maxis initially wanted to make grades slightly harder and slightly random and then changed it. Who knows whether this was done "by design" to make it super simple and super easy, or it was abandoned or incomplete, or their "design" was flawed. :shrug:

I've tested it out in my game, but have not yet observed the long term effects. A lot of my playable sims have high logic already, so the effect is less noticeable. But play testing in the Pleasant house, Lilith Pleasant with no logic points was stuck with a D after returning from her first day of school. Using the boolprop cheat to up her logic points, she returned with a C.

INSTALLATION:
This MUST be in your Downloads folder, typically found under:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads


Compatibility:
:!!: Tested in Nighlife and works as planned, so far. Wink Please test it out and let me know if there are any problems. This probably works in Uni and the Base Game, although it hasn't been tested. Feel free to try it out and leave feedback, which is always appreciated. Smiley

I have tested this in my game and it appears to work fine.

This hack is compatible with most, if not all mods by MATY crew (Pescado, TJ, and CBoy), dizzy, and probably more. Again, up to you to help me determine any possible conflicts.


:!!: REMINDER and fine print (to cover my ass ) :
Remember to ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE INSTALLING NEW HACKS. By using this hack, you agree to absolve me of any responsibility or liability for any potential loss of or damage to your data. You have been warned.

:!!: HOW TO REPORT: Conflicts, problems, or errors
I would appreciate any constructive criticism and feedback that is actually helpful. With that in mind, it would be helpful, when reporting any conflicts or issues, that you include the following:

1) thorough but reasonably brief description of what you were doing
2) clear, comprehendible explanation of your problem
3) list of hacks that may be related to grades
4) archived (.rar or .zip) of log produced by error

Posts which do not include a clear description of what your problem is will be pretty much ignored. (i.e. posts such as "This does not work! I am taking it out! You suck! Nice try! etc.") I can't and won't help you if you don't explain what's wrong.

Please be nice when trying to explain your problem and I might be nice and help you.

:grouphug: Finally, my Thank Yous go to:

J.M. Pescado, twojeffs, dizzy2, and jase439 for being excellent tutors and providing excellent models in their mods. As always, thanks to those creators who've put out some excellent modding tutorials, Quaxi and co for SimPE, and dizzy2 for disaSim2, and the finally letters T and S, and the number 2, all of whom, without which this mod would not be possible.

If I left anyone out, I apologize in advance. You know who you are and you deserve my thanks.